I've used Krita for a few years now, and have only been trying seriously to improve my art for about four years. I'm an amateur's amateur.

As much as I would love to learn how to do various things, I'm afraid I'm bad at understanding what the lingo means, and I also have trouble understanding tutorials when they suggest I use a tool that I can't find on my program. I do have it updated to 4.2.9.

I'm trying to draw a wolf for my friend and I want to learn how to draw fur.

I did find a tutorial on the Krita website. I have a few questions, though.

First, it suggests I use "ink_brush_25," which I can't find anywhere on my program. Is that part of an extension package or something?

I'll admit, I don't wholly understand the Distance or Fade stuff, but I think the tutorial writer explains it in a concise manner that's relatively easy to understand. But I'm worried that my not understanding how this works will hinder me in the future. Same with Saturation.

Finally, when they show all the fuzzy legs and say that it should look like the fur on the far right upper paw, is this effect produced with several strokes of several lines? Or am I supposed to draw each hair individually?

See, my issue is that my difficulty in absorbing the technical terms when it comes to tutorials--and my fear of asking question, because I remember back in the day when questions about anything on forums (not this one) were basically answered sardonically, with an eyeroll or an "LOL WHAT A NOOB" or sometimes intentionally incorrect answers--will keep me from eventually being able to improve my art past this point. (The "Let's make fun of people's drawings" trend of the previous decade didn't help, either.)

Thanks for your help, apologies if I'm posting in the wrong place.

I usually like to respond to questions and points in the order they're presented but I want to deal with your final two immediately:

You're not posting in the wrong place, so hello and welcome.
For the art side of things in particular, there is a newish website/forum at https://krita-artists.org/ where you'll be able to get lots of advice on painting techniques and see art of all kinds produced by krita users, experienced and 'amateur'.
I suggest you have a look at it and then sign up because it's really good in all respects.

Don't be afraid of asking questions, certainly not here. I don't know about other forums you've tried but this one and the krita-artists.org forum are welcoming and helpful places as I'm sure you'll find out.

Back to the beginning:

Version 4.3.0 has just gone into beta release so it will probably become the 'official' version within a few weeks. You can stay with 4.2.9 for a while longer then think about updating at the end of May or whenever you want.

ink_brush-25 is in the Krita_3_Default_Resources bundle and that has to be enabled via Settings -> Manage Resources where you will see it and you can move it over to the Active bundles side to make its contents available for use.
It's probably not essential that you use that particular brush preset and the manual is in need of updating in some areas.

The best way to understand the brush properties control system in the brush editor, such as using Distance to control Size (or whatever) is to play with them in a structured way. Experiment with using Control-X to affect Property-Y and see what happens.
You don't need a deep understanding of how it works as much as an understanding of what it does, I'd say.
If you want a deep understanding of things then that takes time and experience and lots of questions on forums and lots of playing inside the brush editor.

As for the more specific fur painting questions, you'll have to wait for someone else to explain that because I'm not at all good with the art side of things. If you try asking on krita-artists.org you'll probably get replies and illustrative artwork samples from people who have lots of experience painting fur.

Good luck and keep asking questions

Thank you very much for your help! However...

ahabgreybeard wrote:ink_brush-25 is in the Krita_3_Default_Resources bundle and that has to be enabled via Settings -> Manage Resources where you will see it and you can move it over to the Active bundles side to make its contents available for use.
It's probably not essential that you use that particular brush preset and the manual is in need of updating in some areas.

I must be doing something wrong. Because I added Krita_3_Default_Resources to my Active Bundles...



But my list of ink brushes remains the same. No ink_brush_25.



I'll be sure to check out the other forums and just keep trying, though!

For some reason, that brush doesn't have the 'Ink' tag so you'd need to filter as All at the top and type 'ink' into the search box at the bottom of the docker.

If that doesn't work, here is ink_brush_25, renamed as ink_brush_A-25 with a slightly different icon:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/lij5nbq91bsoj ... 5.kpp?dl=1

You can download that and use Import Presets in your Manage Resources window to bring it into your personal resources folder and it should be immediately visible in the brush presets docker. You could assign it to the Ink tag which would be useful.
I gave it a different name and a different icon to avoid confusion if you do get the original one back in the future.